Have you had enough of the Black Friday madness? Does it sicken you to your stomach the environmental impact of consumerism and packaging waste created in just one day? Make this Black Friday different.
We strongly believe in the importance of being aware of our carbon footprint, and taking care of our impact on the planet we live on. Black Friday is a day of crazy shopping discounts, spurring people on to spend and consume more. We are often no even aware of our consumer impacts on the environment, so step one to change is education. Step two is making conscious choices about where we spend our cash! Read below for 6 sustainable yoga clothing brands we recommend you can support this Black Friday (and always!).
What even is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It was instigated in the US but now black friday is celebrated as a shopping day for reduced prices and crazy discounts, all around the world.
Our emails get flooded with promo emails for offers and temptations to get sucked into consumerism a month before christmas. It has a reputation of evoking violence and fist fights (especially in the US) with shops being over crowded and people fighting (physically) for the best deals.
With shopping (and everything) being largely digitalised in a post-Covid world, so much shopping has moved online. As a result we can get overwhelmed by the marketing pounded at us through social media and our inboxes.
What happens? Typically there is a ‘frantic overbuying, impulse purchases and chaos’! We are led deep into consumerism, spending too much, causing a huge environmental impact with increased manufacturing, increased transport service and a shocking amount of waste. In 2020, Money.co.uk predicted that British Black Friday home deliveries would be responsible for 429,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (the equivalent of 435 return flights from London to New York).
What can we do about it?
Well we are the consumers after all we can truly ‘vote with our money’ or ‘put our money where our mouth is’. We CAN make a difference by making a choice about how and what we spend on. We can do this every day but it is even more important to be aware of this around Black Friday. This Black Friday we can choose to discover more sustainable, green companies. We can choose to opt out panic and impulse buying, and not get sucked into the irresistible deals for things we never needed.
We have selected six sustainable yoga clothing brands that care about their environmental impact. Ok some of them are not ‘strictly’ yoga clothes, but they are all strictly sustainable and UK based to avoid increasing our carbon footprint with transport services too. Make a choice to support these brands this black friday, and look out for other companies with a good environmental ethos. If it is food brands then look for products that are plant-based, organic, and local. If it is tech then choose something energy efficient.
Top Tip: Often if a brand is genuinely sustainable they will list it in their values and impact section on their website.
6 Sustainable Yoga Clothing Brands to Support this Black Friday
BAM – Bamboo Clothing
Started by Dave in 2006, just running BAM from his garage! BAM has David’s core values running through it. Bam is an excellent product with excellent service with sustainability at the core. David’s personal goal is to find the best that the human spirit has to offer. It’s at the heart of BAM.
What we love: We love these guys for so many reasons! Firstly I mean who doesn’t love Bamboo clothing! It is so soft! And we love their goal of making a positive impact before 2030. We love their focus on fairtrade and sustainability in the clothing industry – read more here: https://bambooclothing.co.uk/sustainability-landing/ We also LOVE that they are based in the UK!
Flo
Ok so not officially yoga clothes but we love these guys. Also period pants are totally an essential if you have your period and want to do yoga feeling safe from leakage! We are all for less waste and reusable products, so here you have our favourite choice of UK based period pants!
What we love:
100% reusable, made from organic eco materials (bambo and cotton), and so bloody (excuse the pun) useful!
Jilla Active
A female led, sustainable active wear brand that is based in the UK. They use natural, organic and recycled materials and have super lovely designs available.
What we love: The focus on yoga clothes and keeping people active. We also love that they focus on reducing their impact on the environment to keep our community exercising and practicing yoga in a world that is healthy and protected.
We love that their goal is to develop in a sustainable way by reducing their impact on the planet through all stages of the supply chain.
Read more here: https://www.jillaactive.com/pages/jilla-conscious
Blossom Yoga Wear
Award winning yoga clothing based in the UK! Blossom Yoga Wear has a beautiful range of eco-friendly, stylish yoga clothes that don’t break the bank.
What we love: They have recently introduced their new range of yoga leggings, tops and tote bags. They are all spun from recycled materials and sustainable fabrics. They use organic cotton for tank tops and vests, and PET (recycled plastic bottles) for their sustainable yoga leggings.
We also LOVE the colourful and fun designs!
TenTree
TenTree offer a great selection of yoga leggings and comfy tops to practice in. They also have a super big selection of other sustainable clothing to choose from for all different occasions.
What we love: These guys plant a tree for every single item of clothing bought! Read more about their sustainability report here: https://www.tentree.co.uk/pages/sustainability-report
We also love that they offer much more than just sustainable yoga clothing, but actually clothing for all occasions. Sustainability doesn’t need to stop at yoga!
Be Here + Love
Be Here + Love offer unique, cool and chic apparel for the modern yogi, fusing yoga fashion with the true essence of the yogic teachings. The pieces are beautifully simplistic and can be worn both on and off the mat. All about versatility!
The collection is 70% + organic cotton with less harmful chemicals and lowe impact on the environment. They organically print everything by hand in the UK and only use small environmentally friendly Independent companies too.
What we love: They send out the clothing in planet friendly packaging, only using compostable mailers and our own recyclable tissue paper.
AND the best bit is their commitment to Animal Aid India with ‘OM FOR ANIMALS’ receiving a percentage from every sale and get’s sent out to support furry friends across the world!
Other ways to be sustainable with your yoga clothes:
Having said all of that… the BEST way to be sustainable is to avoid buying new!
One of the biggest problems we have is the culture of necessity to buy new all the time. What happens with the old clothes? They end up as waste! This waste of material has a huge environment impact.
Kat’s (founder of Movement for Modern Life) suggestion is to change the culture around buying new. Find ways to preserve clothes, buy second hand, trade with friends, or go to a local charity shop.
- Charity Shops – not only are these buying second hand, but they support a charity and they support the local high street shop to stay open.
- Another way to buy second hand is through car boot sales or local organisations that trade in clothes.
- Ever tried a clothes swap? Get together with some friends and simply swap old clothes your bored of for some new exciting things from friends. One persons trash is anothers gold!
- Even better… repair your old clothes! No need to throw out if you have a hole in the crotch… sew it! No need to throw out if theres a stain on your jumper, dye it!
If you really do love shopping on Black Friday… here are some suggestions to make your shopping more sustainable:
- Take your own reusable bags
- Use it as an opportunity to get good deals on products you need at home rather than fast fashion. Get household products and food instead.
- Buy things that will help on your journey towards sustainability, e.g. sew kits or reusable items
- Opt for less packaging if you can! Or purchase more items in one shop to avoid multiple packaging and delivery services.
- Be aware of the lifespan of what you are buying. Avoid single use items and buy things that are built to last.
- Be conscious that returns require more shipping and have a carbon impact. Try to only buy things if you have the intention to keep them.
Written by Joanna Gilbert – Joanna originally trained in Frog Lotus Vinyasa Flow with Vidya Heisel in 2015. Since then she has been discovering new ways to connect to her body. Joanna is passionate about combining mindful-movement, with play, and self exploration.
When not playing she can be found working behind the scenes with MFML as the chief Happiness and Wordsmith Maven!
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